Biological Sciences

Preserving the Puget Sound shoreline

Washington State University is partnering with conservation organizations to protect an ecologically important portion of Puget Sound shoreline along Henderson Inlet, south of Olympia. The agreement between Capitol Land Trust (CLT), WSU, and affiliated groups, including the Squaxin Island Tribe, will also provide environmental research and education opportunities to the entire region. The land trust […]

Likely cause of increasingly common birth defect

An alarming increase in the occurrence of the most common genital malformation in male babies, hypospadias, is likely due to environmental factors, such as toxicant exposure, which alter epigenetic programming in a forming penis.  That’s according to a new study in Scientific Reports that identified a direct link between hypospadias tissue samples and the presence of epigenetic […]

Once a Coug, always a Coug

Transfer student Carrie Colbert earned her bachelor’s degree in women’s studies at WSU, graduating in 2009, and then earning an MBA at Grand Canyon University. She currently works for ALSCO, a linen company. One of her tips for current students: ask for help when [you need] help and remember “that you become part of a […]

$1.89M NIH grant to advance research in rapid evolution

What if scientists could have the funding to explore new directions of research free from the initial goals written into many grants? With a recent $1.89 million Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award from the National Institutes of Health, Seth Rudman has that opportunity. Rudman is an assistant professor in WSU Vancouver’s School of Biological Sciences. MIRA […]

Twin study links exercise to beneficial epigenetic changes

A new WSU-led study indicates consistent exercise can change not just waistlines but the very molecules in the human body that influence how genes behave. Published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers found the more physically active sibling in identical twin pairs had lower signs of metabolic disease as measured by waist size and body mass […]

Cancer treatment could impact health of future generations

In one of the first-known studies of its kind, research led by WSU biologist Michael Skinner indicates a common chemotherapy drug could carry a toxic inheritance for the children and grandchildren of adolescent cancer survivors. The study, published online in iScience, found male rats who received the drug ifosfamide during

Faculty named to Highly Cited Researchers list

Nathan McDowell, a national laboratory researcher jointly appointed to Washington State University’s School of Biological Sciences and affiliated with the School of the Environment, is one of five WSU faculty members recognized in this year’s Highly Cited Researchers list. The five are among the top 1% most cited researchers in the world.

Increasing evidence that bears are not carnivores

A new study on the diets of giant pandas and sloth bears led by Charles Robbins, a Washington State University wildlife biology professor, adds evidence that bears are omnivores like humans and need a lot less protein than they are typically fed in zoos. Bears are not cats or dogs, and feeding them like they […]

Eight proteins regulate insulin in hibernating bears

Feeding honey to hibernating bears helped Washington State University researchers find the potential genetic keys to the bears’ insulin control, an advance that could ultimately lead to a treatment for human diabetes. Every year, bears gain an enormous amount of weight, then barely move for months, behavior that would